Phew....Saturday! I survived the busy week (only to enter the busy weekend of my son's 13 year old birthday party and the annual "go chop down the tree" event.)

To wrap up the week, Alex did indeed end up with an A on his math chapter test. He only missed 1 out of 30. That STINKER. Apparently, his teacher simply let him know that he would be the last one to turn in the test (no more rushing). I have no idea how he did on the unit test though since it wasn't graded, but I'm hoping that at least he did well enough for me to stop worrying.

My biggest news though, involves Amanda....who after buckling down made not just one A, but TWO. She got an A on he science quiz (a 96%...go AMANDA!) and an A- on her Social Studies Test. (WaHOOOOOOOOOO). To date, her best grade on a Social Studies Test has been a whopping F. I'm not kidding. She studied endlessly for these events and is so proud of herself. Truly, listening to her talk about her grades and seeing the joy written all over her face is just the most rewarding thing ever. It makes this rollercoaster totally worth it. Yesterday in the car, she said to me "You know, Mom, this means that I am smart now. I am an A student now."
"Yes, Amanda, yes you are," I said.
She has always goofed around in study hall and written notes to friends.
"You know that I reread the chapter twice during study hall before the test (social studies"...
"Wow...that sure paid off for you, didn't it!"

Andrew is usually pretty negative about Amanda and academics because he picks up on bits and pieces of things. When we picked him up, she had both tests in her hand. He grabbed them from her and started shouting and hollering "Awesome. I always knew you had it in you. You are awesome, Amanda. " He just kept high-fiving her and announcing to her how great she was....She was just so proud and happy...Andrew's opinion means so much to her. I want this to continue for her so much. She deserves it.

I'm in utter disbelief. I expected a C, hoped for a B on one or the other (but was prepared for more of the same)...but to have improved that much...I'm in awe. I hope we can harness the momentum here and keep the positive going.

Man, this parenting thing is so much work. I always assumed that I could send them to school and the school would take care of the educating part...and then at home I would be able to take care of being a mom and making sure that they got their homework done. I had no idea that I would be filming movies or spending hours teaching them to study for their social studies, helping them figure out how to make life-size models of the human skeleton out of clay or just standing around with my foot planted up their behinds to make sure that they get it all done.

At the end of this week, I was so tired that I fell asleep last night in the middle of a very funny movie that Thomas and I were watching.....I woke up at 3 am to discover that Thomas had brought me my favorite fleece blanket and covered me up right there on the sofa.....This morning he said "you were sleeping so peacefully, I just didn't want to disturb you."

All of the stress of the week was totally worth it though. I feel right now like we can really keep things going....I hope we can.


Kris[/quote]